This invention relates to a method and apparatus for raising ruminants.
Taking into consideration the present circumstances such that cattle-raising in a pasture becomes increasingly difficult, the business of raising and trading cattle would not pay without controlling completely the system of raising the cattle. For raising the cattle in a rational manner, livestock feed for cattle is the most important.
The feed for cattle fundamentally is roughage and concentrate as enumerated below:
Concentrate with high digestible nourishment in total amount (TDN): Corn, barley, wheat, soybean, soybean cake, and feed rice.
Concentrate rich in starchiness: Corn, barley, wheat, and oats.
Concentrate rich in fiber: Beet pulp, cotton seed, barley bran, soybean skin, and beer lees.
Concentrate rich in vegetable fat: Cotton seed, soybean, and rice bran.
Concentrate rich in protein: Soybean cake, linseed lees, cotton-seed lees, peanut shell, etc.
Typical roughage: Wild plants, dry pasture, hay cube, various kinds of silage, and paddy straw.
The type of feed to be supplied to the cattle and the method of raising the cattle would depend upon the type of the cattle which are classified into, for instance, dairy cattle and beef cattle and other classifications which can be further subdivided.
Thus, there are a variety of methods of raising the cattle. Even in the case of raising the dairy cattle, the raising method must be changed with the stage of growing. For example, the raising method for the cattle of an early age is different from that for matured cattle. Also, it is necessary to consider various plans for raising the cattle according to the growth conditions of raising the cattle or upbringing the cattle in lactation. That is, the plan designed for raising the cattle should be carried out with knowledge whether the cattle are in the preceding or latter period of the fattening stage and by letting the cattle have the aforesaid feed in combination and in accordance with the desire purpose. The raising method for cattle using the concentrate feed as noted above is now being automatically carried out in a mechanized manner. However, the raising method using the aforenoted roughage feed cannot easily be practiced automatically in a mechanized manner. The roughage feed calls for a large storage space.
The concentrate feed applied in raising the cattle is thus handled and controlled with ease. Since the roughage, feed exerts a great influence upon the rumen (first compartment of the cattle's stomach) which is regarded as one of important factors in raising, feeding of the roughage to the cattle is required to be controlled with the greatest possible care.
This is because the roughage being supplied to the cattle affects directly fermentation in the rumen of the cattle, since the rumen of the cattle does not per se secrete digestive enzymes and the composition of feed swallowed into the rumen is decomposed and composed by bacilli and protozoa in the rumen. The starch, roughage and sugar in the feed are first decomposed to yield volatile fatty acid (VFA), involving the propagation of bacteria, which is the essential component of the physical energy of the cattle. At the same time, the protein and non-protein nitrogen are decomposed into ammonia to compose bacterial protein and propagate protozoa which gives birth to protozoa protein. These resultant components contribute to the yield of lacto-Protein and beef protein.
Tallow is formed by decomposing the fat in the feed to yield fatty acid and glycerol and denaturing the glycerol thus yielded to propionic acid. Furthermore, unsaturated fatty acid is saturated to obtain saturated fatty acid.
To effectively promote the fermentation in the rumen, the roughage necessitates rough-stiffness and bulkiness for stimulating the mucous membrane of the rumen. Thus, the physical properties of the roughage accelerates the rumination and activity of the rumen.
The rumination involves secreting saliva, thereby to maintain the pH concentration in the rumen at a fixed value by sodium bicarbonate contained in the saliva.
If the physical properties of the roughage are weak, the activity of rumen becomes dull and the rumination is lessened thereby weakening the secretion of saliva and lowering the ph concentration in the rumen, with the result that the bacilli and protozoa in the rumen are affected adversely.
On the other hand, ketosis, milk fever and postpartum stagnation are apt to be caused by abnormal fermentation, indigestion due to displacement of the abomasum and the like before or after delivery. Therefore, it is remarkably important to let the cattle have the roughage feed more than one-third the total amount of dry feed and not less than 1.5% of the weight of the cattle. A standard crude fiber rate representing the content of crude fiber in the fatting feed would be at least 9% for fattening cattle, 15% to 17% for lactating cattle, and 25% at a maximum for grownup cattle.
However, from the standpoint of nutrition, the components having the aforementioned physical properties of the roughage feed could not be replaced with any other substitute feed, although the concentrate components such as cellulose, protein and mineral contained in the roughage can be substituted for other possible feed. Thus, there has been so far proposed a method in which cut pieces of vinyl chloride fiber are used instead of the components having the physical properties of the roughage Though such substitute has sufficiently the desired physical function of the roughage, excrement is increased in amount because the vinyl chloride fiber is finely hashed due to rumination. Besides, since the vinyl choloride fiber in the excrement is irresoluble in the earth, it is difficult to deal with such irresoluble components in the excrement. Accordingly, the vinyl fiber as the substitute for the roughage cannot be used practically.
Compared with the concentrate feed, the roughage which is one and half times in unit price ratio in kind and three times in digestible nourishment is expensive. Moreover, the cattle weighing 500kg generally evacuates about 60kg of excrement including 52kg solid wastes and 8kg liquid wastes. The non-digested roughage in the solid wastes comes up to 4kg to 5kg. As a result, an increase in quantity of fibrous feed causes the excrement to be increased, and therefore, the work of disposing the excrement often becomes onerous.
In a case that the crude fiber rate in the roughage is too high, energy intake per unit is reduced, to thereby restrict a possibility of heightening nutritive value resulting in less productivity of raising cattle. On the contrary, low crude fiber rate would entail a problem such as a difficulty in digestion and decrease in milk fat, and the appropriate quantity of the roughage cannot be readily determined.
As a method for eliminating the problem noted above, there has been known the so-called detergent method for analyzing feed. In this method, neutral detergent participating in bulkiness and intussusception is analyzed into its insoluble matter (NDF), and acid detergent participating in digestiblity is analyzed into its soluble matter (ADF). It was reported that the ADF content is required to be more than 19% relative to the milk component in order to prevent the milk from being lowered in fat, and the fat in milk is most increased at the NDF content over about 35%. In addition, it has been suggested that 75% of the NDF component in the feed be contributed by the roughage.
As is obvious from the foregoing, the feeding of roughage is remarkably difficult technically.